In order to produce electrical circuits which can process analog signals, so-called absolute reference voltage sources are often required. U. Tietze, C. Schenk “Halbleiterschaltungstechnik” [“Semiconductor circuitry”], Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1993, pp. 555-560, discloses using diodes as electrical components for reference voltage sources.
An important area in modern electronics is so-called polymer electronics, in which polymer materials are used as a material for forming electrical circuits or circuit components. C. D. Dimitrakopoulos, D. J. Mascaro (2001) “Organic thin film transistors”, IBM J. Res. & Dev. 45, pp. 11-27, provides an overview of organic thin film transistors based on polymer materials.
Problems arise if a reference voltage source is intended to be formed in the context of polymer electronics, since to date there is no satisfactory technical solution for diodes in the context of a simple polymer technology.
Consequently, no reference voltage circuits comparable to CMOS or bipolar or general silicon circuitry are known in polymer electronics.
The possibilities known from the prior art for generating reference voltages cannot be applied to polymer transistor technology (apart from simple voltage dividers relating to a supply voltage) since, in said technology, there are a priori no pn junctions as a basis for diodes or bipolar transistors. However, a diode is usually required for a sufficiently accurate reference voltage source in silicon technology.
P. V. Necliudov, M. S. Shur, D. J. Gundlach, T. N. Jackson (2000) “Modeling of organic thin film transistors of different designs” J. Appl. Phys. 88, pp. 6594-6597, discloses organic light emitters with altered charge carrier injection.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,455,873 B1 discloses a microelectronic device with a conductive polymer.
Nührmann, D “Das groβe Werkbuch Elektronik” [“The large workbook of electronics”], Volume 2, 1998, Franzis' Verlag Poing, ISBN 3-7723-6547-7, pages 1415-1423, discloses temperature-compensated reference diodes.